Don't be too sure about the all american, Matt Gilliland is udefeated and is going for state cahmpionship no. 4. He is one tough cookie.

Hey Greenback fan do you know Dick Cramer. Old guy reallly really old guy. If you do tell him to get on here and chime in. Tell him I sent you.

On the subject, it is so hard to pick programs but I think easier to pick states. I was amazed when I went to nationals over the last ten years how many kids in the finals and semi's were from Ohio. Those kids have to be coming from somewhere. One of the more underated states is South Dakota. Been several national champs that originated up there and there aren't too many people up there anyway so the ones they have must be pretty tough.

Correction Gilliand is going for his third state championship, since he is only a junior.

OK, what elso do you hear that comes out of Hoxie? Nothing. Just wrestling. I have never heard of another sport coming out of Hoxie. Meaning, they have a great kids program or every kid goes out for wrestling and nobody there plays basketball or both. It's still a great accomplishment for such a small school. To the other guy who said they could beat some of the nationally ranked schools----NO.

There's really no way to compare KS teams to those in other states since there is very little team competition with other states. But as a state in general, Kansas has done fairly well in the junior national tournament in recent years. I would be interested in seeing a KS "all-star" team compete with similar teams from surrounding states in a multi-state dual tournament format.

As far as Hoxie goes, I don't know if any kids would be included on this team. But I would be in favor of having Kirk Baker coach the team. Year in and year out, he turns average kids into state placers and good kids into state champions. The amazing thing to me is that they can even fill all the weight classes when they only have 19 kids on the entire team. And just for the record, Hoxie's boys basketball team also placed at state last year.

I will tell you another thing Hoxie has and that is a lot of really good people. I have a lot of friends out there and it is a heck of a town. My hope is that we can talk them into coming to the Basehor Tourney next year. I hope you come up Kirk, your kids will have a ball and really enjoy it. We will make it very worth their time. It is a tourney devoted to wrestlers and I think they know that by how we treat them. Here's hoping you give us a try. Your fans will love it too, we have great Barbeque up here man.

Let's all have a spelling bee.

Olex Atto said: "there maybe 72 schools, but that does not mean that there is going to be 72 guys that are out for their teams. But in 5a and 6a there are going to a full 32 men."

Come on get serious. The first year I coached at a 6A regional (your senior year) there were only 5 men in the 112 pound weight class. Obvioulsy all the big 6A school weren't full. The fact is most 5A and 6A programs don't have any more kids out than a good 4A or 3A program. That means that yes a 5A or 6A champ has beat half the number of kids then a 4a or 3-2-1A state champ.

If every weight in the 5a division is full, you have a 50% chance of getting into the state tournament just by making varsity somewhere in 5a. ( 32 teams, 16 state spots. ) if 123a is only 75% full (48) your chances are 1 in three (33%).
numberwise the smaller state is tougher to conquer. Combine 5a6a, and put 4a with 123a, and you'd have a better tournament system, one that means something-- a 16 man district, with an 8 man bracket going into state, 8man at state for 4 places. as it stands now in the larger classes, any combination of two wins and/or byes and off you go to state. Its like the special olympics-- everybody gets a medal. It would then be very difficult for any team to win it more than a couple of times in a row. The qualifier for the state tournament ought to be bigger than a small invitational. This would also satisfy the folks that like the combined venue at wichita, only it would be better because all the good guys would get to wrestle each other.

how did the best high school in the nation turn into how we should change our state tournament format?

evolution

What I was trying to point out is that it is very difficult for any team is Kansas to look good in a national sense when KSHAA through their multiple state championships and their limitations on how far a team can go to compete and how far away a school is allowed to invite competition to thier tourneys limits the extent to which we are allowed to showcase our better wrestlers. The only people we are able to get rated nationally do so because of what they do on their own in the summer (cadet nat'ls, etc. Until KSHAA allows teams to travel more than 500 miles, like the rated teams do, we will be rated in individual but not team classifications.
and having four different state champions just waters down your chances more. THAT is what the Tournament venue and KSHAA policy has to do with who gets ranked nationally.

I don't think the focus of Kansas wrestling should be on getting teams nationally ranked. The KSHSAA has those rules to help protect its atletes. The rankings really mean nothing except to those people who have nothing are not actually wrestling and have nothing better to do.